Arsenal want Morata, will settle for Lacazette

The Evening Standard, apparently somehow intimately knowledgeable with Florentino Perez's thoughts and plans, has reported that Arsenal is still interested in readily available Alvaro Morata and that Arsene Wenger would be willing to get into a transfer battle with Chelsea on the condition that Real Madrid lowers their asking price. Taking that contradiction into account, the Standard states:

Chelsea have an advantage in that their new manager Antonio Conte convinced Morata to join Juventus from Real two years ago and has since helped him develop as a player. . . . Wenger has been a long-time admirer of Morata, having traced his progress since he was a teenager in Real Madrid's youth set-up, and is keen to bolster the Gunners' forward line.

Obviously enough there is a possibility that Morata truly is available but one has to question the certainty of his availability as floated by the English press since none of them have a great track record of predicting Perez's moves.

The Standard also goes on to state that Wenger is a fan of Lyon's Alexandre Lacazette as a backup plan should Morata be unattainable. However, Lyon president Jean-Michel Aulas has repeatedly stated that Lacazette is off the table and will remain at Lyon this season as they look to (hilariously) compete with PSG for the league title.

Is this worth paying attention to? Maybe, as Arsenal has been linked to a number of strikers the past few years and has been linked with these strikers specifically this window. But should we believe that the Evening Standard has some special insight on the transfer dealings of a club abroad and how available they're making a player that hasn't showed any concrete evidence leaving? Nah. Still, where there's smoke there could be some fire. Stay tuned.